Tag: best time to exercise

Studies show that the best time to exercise if around an hour after eating a meal.

I was inspired to post this today after watching on TV a physician who revealed that most people are exercising at the wrong time and thus are not getting the best benefit from their exercise.

Watch video below

He said the best time to exercise is after eating – an hour after eating to be specific.

This prompted me to do a little research on the net. And sure enough, there were indeed supporting studies conducted around the issue.

And while I thought this was a new discovery, it is actually a known fact several years ago. This page for instance which came out on the first page of the serp was posted around June of 2007. So is this one.

The study however needs some more follow up inasmuch as it involved only 12 people and thus involved only 6 who exercised an hour after breakfast and 6 who just sat idle.

The study found that not only did the group who exercised burn more calories (not surprisingly of course), but that although the group who exercised ate more on the next meal, they “actually took in fewer calories than their idle counterparts”.

I thought the study isn’t completely that scientific inasmuch as it not only involved just 12 people only but that it grouped them only as those who exercised after breakfast and those who just sat idle after breakfast. In this other source however, it says that a Surrey University study grouped 12 folks into those who exercised before breakfast and those who ate after. Makes me wonder if somehow these authors had the same source and somehow bungled up the facts.

For those whose brows are still up with questions about what’s wrong with exercising before a meal, well, they implied that despite the general belief about exercising on an empty stomach as the best way, the reverse is actually more beneficial especially if you want to lose weight.

As far as I’m concerned, I think there’s no harm in trying out this schedule, though, I still believe that further studies need to be done in order to confirm the possibility of exercising after a meal as the best time to exercise.

But here’s more information from the IHRSA which will help you convince yourself about the supremacy of post-meal exercise: Click here to read about post meal exercise benefits.

It says that within a 4 to 6 hour period after a meal, the arteries appear unhealthy, especially if you eat a high fat meal. During this post-prandial state, cholesterol can start to build up because the arteries lose the flexibility to expand in response to an increase in blood flow.

Physical exercise an hour after a (high-fat) meal, they found, not only reverses the damage to the arteries, but also enhances their functions, compared to exercise before a meal.